SEGA News Bits: SEGA says new Panzer Dragoon Won’t Sell

We did a news post on how Phantasy Star Online 2 producer Satoshi Sakai if they where every going to do a game with a Dragon protagonist like Panzer Dragoon, according to Satoshi Sakai SEGA isn’t in the position to have a game like that sell. So we sat down and discussed if there was a market for a game like Panzer Dragoon and if SEGA of today could manage to make the game sell.

So it’s a genre issue then, like how the 80s scroller saw the Streets of Rage franchise lose it’s main market. I remember how Panzer Dragoon started as an on-rails glider to showcase the Saturns 3D capabilities – that’s the only reason why the original was built to be this way.

So why not have the Panzer Dragoon franchise revert to primarily an RPG franchise, with on-rails segments spliced into it – as homage to some of it’s on-rails predecessors, and have it look to Panzer Dragoon Saga as it’s foundation with the first two as the prototype precursors that led to it.

I can see the appeal in that, Azel Panzer Dragoon RPG is most fans favourite in the series anyway and it works well in an RPG genre with its rich, interesting and unique universe that is unlike anything else out there that can match it, vast enough to expand on with several series of games.

And yet that Panzer Dragoon Orta which came in 2002 did sell well enough for the time considering it’s limited marketing efforts. It wasn’t a million seller but it still sold pretty well given it’s genre and platform, anyway that’s my point, if the genre is it’s limitation, then there’s nothing stopping them from looking to Panzer Dragoon Saga as the true foundation for the franchise to build itself from.

But that’s extremely unlikely, as Sega will likely never ever return to the home console market, they were there for nearly 20 years and they never gained a real long lasting consumer base on the scale of the Playstation (which almost could have become a Sega console itself) other than for the Mega Drive – but Sega being Sega, liked their hardware to be so individualistic, with it’s brands, licenses and pioneering franchises which revolutionised the industry in it’s time, whereas new comers Sony and Microsoft have remained stable as they’ve both kept the exact same console brand names that they came in with – Playstation and Xbox, if Sega was the same, they’d likely have stuck with the ‘MegaDrive’ brand.

How likely is it that Sega will ever get back into home hardware again as a major hardware player?
Some people even think Sega did right leaving when they did with the advent of mobile technology (which was company planned even before the Dreamcast launched, Isao Okawa mentioned this at the official Dreamcast conference in 1999), not to mention, the idea of home consoles even having a relevant future, even Nintendo is focusing resources elsewhere in preparation other than Nintendo hardware for the first time ever.

The thing is, if it’s only likely that Sega would ever give the go ahead for a new Panzer on Sega hardware, and new Sega home hardware is next to never going to ever happen, then it will mean the end of the Panzer franchise itself, it’s fan base will move on and other newer audiences will have no idea what it is, making it even harder to sell. Panzer Dragoon Orta still came out even if it wasn’t on Sega hardware as it was already in development for the Dreamcast anyway before it’s manufacturing was reduced and Sega shifted their structure to become platform agnostic, so the early Panzer Orta code was prototyped with the Dreamcast.

I think the observation of the dying “on-rails” genre on consoles is true.
I also believe that it was used a lot during the days were 3D capabilities were limited and thus free play was limited as well (one of the reasons why Shenmue used so many QTEs if I remember correctly – limited objects and clear scripting allowed smooth graphics on a high level).
Anyways, I believe on-rails can work perfectly on mobile devices due to the limitation of the hardware and the interface / controlling element of a phone / tablet.
However, it will never be the PD that fans of the series would hope for.

I agree with sega and the segabit panel. But sega should explore more with the franchis a nd yeah maybe a shump aka panzer dragoon shump will work. Kudos for … Barry for thinking outside the box. you ask how in the hell make off panzer dragon…. good question make the game like Wonderboy … the shoooter version on the mega drive where you ride on the ….. think first boss is the fish.

That’s a tough one. I think if a modern Panzer Dragoon were to resurface and be successful, it’d have to be open-world with a strong emphasis on flying the dragon through dangerous territory. But people would still dismiss it as ripping off medieval-style open-world games in spite of its unique world. I don’t know. I think the unfamiliarity of Panzer’s world appeals to a niche audience like us (and in my case, I adore the series for deliberately avoiding generic sci-fi/fantasy visual cliches I’ve grown sick to death of), but not to a mainstream audience. I still feel the current state of gaming (if not the media) has more demand for familiar and recognizable concepts the audience can relate to as opposed to creative or unique ideas that allows them to explore things they haven’t seen before. At least, when it comes to console triple-A gaming. I don’t see PD appealing to an audience that still demands military shooters and space marines and wanting them churned out as much as sports titles.

Mobile-wise, while I haven’t played Crimson Dragon on mobile, I think if you used one side to change the camera angle and the other to shoot (your dragon’s movement is automatic), it could work?